


A Trip Down

by RPGwrites



Series: Bad Things Happening Card [12]
Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Angst, Betrayal, Concussions, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, Leg Injury
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-11
Updated: 2021-01-11
Packaged: 2021-03-15 22:20:10
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,071
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28696089
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RPGwrites/pseuds/RPGwrites
Summary: When Ryder and Reyes decides to take a break and takes a romantic trip their shuttle crash. But is an accident? Were they betrayed perhaps? Only time will tell.
Relationships: Female Ryder | Sara/Reyes Vidal
Series: Bad Things Happening Card [12]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1831141
Comments: 4
Kudos: 4





	A Trip Down

**Author's Note:**

> Prompted by [ Ripley95 ](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ripley95/) Prompt: I'll only slow you down. This is part of the bad things happening prompts.

"Are you sure about this?" Ryder asked after hearing about his plans for them. 

"C'mon Ryder it will be fun." Reyes was cocky. Believing he had the most romantic plans for them. 

It was weeks since Meridian was found. Thankfully, Scott was recovering. That didn't stop his screams in her nightmares and Reyes knew about it. Which is probably why he planned a romantic giveaway. 

"No comms." That was her demand. For the last few days she has been on Kadara they were bothered by people needing the Charlatan. The truth was they didn't have a whole lot of privacy. 

"Ryder you wound me." But she could see the playfulness shining in his eyes. 

"Okay, so tell me where we are going." This was where she finally gave in. Though it wouldn't take much if she was honest with herself. 

Reyes gave his best smile, "You'll see."

* * *

The next day they packed to go to their destination. It would only be the next day. Reyes said he would take more time off but she declined. 

Ryder knew he was busy. She might have shore leave right now but he didn't. He became increasingly busy either with Tann or his people. Meridian changed a lot of things. 

It wasn't long until they were in his shuttle ready to fly off.

Reyes was chatty while flying. She liked seeing him doing what he loved. His eyes shone bright with determination. It took no genius to see he loved what he was doing. 

That brought a smile to her own lips. 

They were still talking when Ryder heard something off. She thought it was the drive core but she couldn't be sure. 

She looked questioningly at him where she was sitting, "Uh… That can't be good."

But Reyes' attention was elsewhere as his fingers flew around the interface. 

Rapidly Reyes tried to get things under control but there wasn't much hope. 

"What's going on?" Ryder asked as alarms were going off right and left, giving way that something was clearly wrong. 

But Reyes was still focused and talked to himself. "Dammit, this should've worked."

That's when she knew he lost control. Then he looked at her. "We're going to crash. Be prepared."

_ Prepare for crashing. How the hell am I supposed to do that? _

It was the million credit question. 

Instead, she took a deep breath and saw how they were going down.

* * *

Ryder was having a hard time opening her eyes. It was squeezed shut and it refused to listen to her brain’s commands. 

_ "Ryder."  _

She recognized the voice. The smooth accent never ceased to put a smile on her lips. 

_ "Ryder…" _

The voice was concerned this time. Worried. Did something happen?

"Ryder!"

It was louder this time. Clearer. The others sounded more far off. As if she was in some kind of dream. 

This time she tried again. The figure was blurry getting in and out of focus. That's when she felt the pain. 

Her leg hurt. That was the clearest of them all. It was blurry but it looked like her leg was twisted the wrong way. 

"Take it easy."

It was Reyes. Her vision was still blurry but she recognized his voice. She blinked and tried to get her vision clearer. 

Her muscles ached all the wrong places and her memory was foggy. She couldn't be sure what happened. "Where are we?" 

"We just crashed." That's when she looked around. Reyes was running around in part of the shuttle that was whole. 

She frowned.  _ Oh yes, we crashed. _

She shook her head wondering how in the world she could forget that. 

Reyes groaned and it immediately got her attention. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," he said in a tight voice. "Might have broken a rib or two but I'm fine." Then he got to her with supplies. "Let's check that leg of yours." 

His hands carefully studied her leg but that didn't stop her from wincing. "Sorry," he apologized. 

"Do you have something to splint it with?" Ryder asked. If she could've stood she would've searched for something. Besides this was Reyes' shuttle. It was best to ask him. 

"Yeah," he said deep in focus. "There's a piece of wood somewhere."

She found that strange. A piece of wood isn't exactly you just keep laying around. "Why do have that here?"

"Doesn't matter," Reyes said as he got up to get it. When he got back his hands worked fast using the wood to splint her leg. 

He twisted her leg and she screamed. 

"Thanks," she said out of breath. "What's next?"

"Now we see why we crashed."

* * *

"SAM?"

"Except for your broken leg you also have a concussion."

Ryder nodded as if SAM could see her. Her and Reyes' omni-tools were broken. But thanks to her implant they still had SAM. "Let Keema know where we are."

"Yes Pathfinder."

This happened through their private channel. That's why Reyes' question was so surprising. 

"Finished talking to your AI?"

"How did you-"

"You have a look," he explained as if that was obvious.

"Asked him to get us backup."

"We might need to move." Reyes had a worrisome look. "The shuttle was tampered with. We might have some company soon." 

She nodded her head. She was tired, so sleepy. But with a concussion she knew it was a bad idea to rest. "Then you have to go. I'll only slow you down."

"I'm not leaving you here." 

* * *

For the next half an hour Ryder and Reyes disagreed. 

"You're not staying here. It's not up for debate." Reyes said after he had enough of their disagreement. 

"If someone sabotaged your shuttle then someone is out to get  _ you _ . I can take care of myself." They started to talk in circles. They already talked about this. 

"I don't doubt that." He said quickly. A bit too quickly. "But we need to stay together." 

They held a staring contest. No one utter a word. 

"If you're staying. I'm staying."

That's when Ryder knew she lost the argument. There was no way she would win and the Charlatan knew it as well.

"Fine," she said with a sigh. 

Before leaving she injected some medi-gel to ease the pain. Afterwards her leg started to have a dull ache. 

Reyes grabbed her arm and pulled her up. When she was finally up she looked him in the eyes. If she didn't miss it he was worried. But it was impossible to know about what. 

Was he perhaps worried about who did this?

* * *

There were no crutches in the shuttle. It would've made things so much easier for her, but why would there be crutches.

Each of them would carry a backpack. Reyes had some extra supplies. Some ration bars and water. Something for which she was thankful for. 

"You ready?" Reyes asked. 

"Yeah," Ryder said as he grabbed his arm to pull her up. 

Ryder would need to use Reyes as support. This meant they would need to move very slowly. 

After walking like this for a while SAM's voice echoed in her head, "Pathfinder, Keema has arrived at the shuttle and would like to speak to Mr. Vidal."

Ryder was sweating. Mixed with exhaustion and Kadara's heat her heart was beating out of her chest. Her leg didn't make things easier. 

"Well, that isn't exactly an option." Did Keema know about her connection with SAM? She wasn't sure if Reyes told her but if she didn't know she'll definitely have some questions. 

"I did tell her that. Anything I should tell her?"

"One sec."

"Reyes," she was out of breath and he immediately knew how to stop. "Keema is at the crash site."

He slowly gave her a weird look but it quickly changed as he put two and two together. "Good. Tell SAM to tell her to gather the evidence. I left a datapad with everything I found."

He helped her to get seated and she had a better chance of catching her breath. "SAM," she started to speak through her private channel, "Tell Keema to find Reyes' datapad. This was no accident. The shuttle was sabotaged." 

"Yes Pathfinder."

Reyes took a seat next to her. "How are you feeling?"

Ryder felt dizzy and her head wouldn't stop hurting but nothing was out of the ordinary. "Tired. But we have to keep going." She pointed towards the open Kadara planet. 

"You need to rest. And have some water," he pointed to her backpack. 

She nodded and gulped the water bottle down. When she was finished drinking she stared at Reyes. She recognized that look.

He was thinking the events over. Wondering what this all meant. 

"Okay, that's enough brooding."

Reyes seemed taken aback by her words. "Brooding?"

"Just tell me what you're thinking. Who do you think is after you?"

"Why me?" he threw back. "Maybe they’re after you." But she could see the shining in his eyes disagreed with his words. 

"Reyes…"

She wasn't sure if it would work. Her strength was leaving her body.

"I don't know Ryder," he was honest with her. "It could be any number of people. Maybe we have a snake in the organisation."

She nodded. The sun was still high in the sky and they were wasting time. "We should really be going."

* * *

She didn't know if it was the concussion, the pain in her leg, or the heat, but she felt worse by the second. She felt like collapsing any second. 

But it wasn't long until they got to a house in the middle of nowhere. 

"What is this place?" Ryder asked as Reyes opened the door. 

"A safe house," Reyes stated as he looked at their surroundings. 

Together they cleared the house making sure no enemies lingered unexpectedly. 

"So," Ryder said after taking a seat on the couch, "If this is a safe house why do you look so worried?"

"Information is power Sara," he reminded her, "Right now we know nothing."

She knew that but it was more than that. Something didn't add up. "It's not just that."

He took a seat next to her and buried his face in his hands. He looked as bad as she felt. He winced suddenly, probably his ribs that protested. "I have things in tight control. This shouldn't have happened."

"You don't believe it's simple bandits, do you?" If it were he wouldn't have been so worried. She realized what she hasn't before. Perhaps it was because her mind worked so slow. "You believe it's someone from the inside."

"Yes," his weary eyes looked at her. It looked like he aged in the time between hiding his face and showing it. "It's the only thing that makes sense."

"Will they find us here?" Ryder asked carefully. 

"If they do. It's someone close to Keema."

* * *

With a concussion Ryder couldn't sleep. So Reyes kept her up during the long hours of the night. 

"I know you're tired Ryder," Reyes said just when her eyes were close for too long. His voice startled her and in process she rubbed her tired eyes. "I'll make you some tea."

She smiled her thanks. 

"You know it's not your fault." His words came suddenly and she had no idea what he was talking about. 

"What are you talking about?"

The kettle was on, doing its job, getting to boil the water. 

"Scott. The nightmares. You're still feeling guilty."

"Reyes, is that really the thing you want to talk about right now?" This was the last thing she wanted to talk about. Being without her omni-tool was torture. Harry could be calling saying that another thing could be wrong with Scott and if she wasn't there she wouldn't know if she could live with herself. 

"Ryder…"

"I wasn't there for him," she immediately stated. "I should've tried to stop the Archon sooner."

"How?"

"I don't know!" It was louder than she meant to. "He was in two commas in one year. Two!"

"If he wasn't captured you would have died."

They talked about all of this before. When her brother was in a coma and for the second time she didn't know if he would wake up. But she still couldn't let this go. 

She was doing better than before. She could still hear his screams when she closed her eyes. But she could actually sleep. After her own injuries Lexi gave her something to sleep. But sleep worsened it so she didn't take them. Overtime it got better though. 

"I know," she said softly. "But…" She stopped talking when she heard something outside.

"SAM?" she said in hopes he knew what she wanted. 

"I'm picking heat signatures outside."

"What is it?" Reyes must've seen how alert she was. 

"We have company."

* * *

"So I guess you have your answer," Ryder said as she shot one in the leg.

Their enemies were a mix of species. Humans, Angaras, Turians, and Asari. 

Reyes didn't answer, he only focussed on his fight. They were both taking cover behind the couch. Where she had difficulties moving because of her injuries he could move freely. And so he did. 

The longer the fight went on, the weaker her shields got. She was lucky Reyes had weapons and armor in the safehouse. 

"How the hell did they know we're here?" Ryder asked. Even if this was someone who betrayed Keema no one knew they were in here.

"Beats me."

After the fight Reyes checked body after body, checking to see if anyone was alive. Ryder didn't know if it was luck that she didn't get shot. She wasn't exactly the best shot right now. 

Slowly Ryder got up trying to find her way to Reyes. She hopped around slowly. "Found anything?"

"No," he said with a sigh. "But we need to move. We have been made."

* * *

With every movement, her leg shot a jolting pain. They were out of medi-gel, the rest was used for minor injuries, and they had to keep on moving. Her winces became groans and Reyes began to take notice. 

Reyes sighed. She recognized it all too well. He was miserable. Reyes Vidal didn't know what his next step should be. 

"We should stop." Reyes' words weren't the only thing indicating they should stop. His actions did as well. 

Her heart was raising. It felt like it would never stop. Her leg was throbbing. Her body screamed yes, but in her heart she knew she couldn't. 

"It's the middle...of… the night," she said between deep breaths. "We…" Another breath. "Can't stop."

Never before has she seen such bright stars in the Kadara sky. The fresh air felt good. But she wanted to do nothing other than fall asleep.

"Ryder you need the rest."

But before she could say anything else someone spoke. Someone that wasn't Reyes. "Pathfinder, you need to listen to your boyfriend."

She was hit with another wave of dizziness and her head hurt too much to think. But she recognized it as a turian's voice. And Reyes' hand loosening told her he knew who he was. 

"Who the hell are you?"

"Dear Pathfinder," the turian said, "I'm so glad we could get you and your boyfriend alone."

"Camnus?"

Both the turian and Ryder looked at him. Ryder had no idea who he was.

"Mr. Vidal glad we could finally talk."

The people around her got tired of waiting. They wanted some action. But both Ryder and Reyes needed some answers. Perhaps more Ryder than him. 

Part of her was afraid that they knew Reyes is the Charlatan. Reyes was worried too. She could tell. He was breathing faster. Eyes not leaving the turian before him. 

"You're one of Keema's people," Reyes concluded. It was obvious. It was something he expected but it didn't seem like he expected  _ this _ person. 

"Okay, just hold up." Ryder said. She wanted to know what was going on. "Who are you and why would you sabotage Reyes' shuttle?"

"All of us are Collectives but we don't like doing business with the Pathfinder."

Everything started to make sense. This went more deeper than Reyes or Ryder realized. "So what. You want to kill me?"

"No, not just you," Camnus' eyes focussed from hers to Reyes. "Personally Mr. Vidal there's not many that like you very much. You changed sides too quickly." 

A flash of a conversation rang through her head. Reyes didn't make his alligenges with the Collectives and Outcasts clear. He did it so that he could play the Outcasts. And now it's back to bite him.

"So what's your plan?" Ryder challenged with an eyebrow. "Get rid of us, there will be someone else who will replace us."

"Maybe," the turian shrugged, "Or we can make due with your deaths. The whole Collective will agree. We don't want to work for the Initiative."

An asari stepped closer. "A war is coming Pathfinder and neither of you will be part of it." 

* * *

Just before anyone could do anything they were surrounded by Collectives. Ryder wasn't sure if it was pure luck or SAM's doing. The only thing she did know was that she was thankful. 

The rogue Collectives handed their weapons very easily. The turian was shocked. 

"How the hell is this possible?" he asked. His anger was as clear as the pain that she felt in her leg. 

The one thing the rogue Collectives didn't count on was SAM. This wasn't the first time he saved her life and it certainly wouldn't be the last time. 

But Reyes kept her secret. "It doesn't matter."

"This isn't over!" the turian yelled as they dragged him away. "There's more of us."

Ryder shot Reyes a concerned look but she had a feeling he suspected as much. This was far from being over. 

"Pathfinder," Keema said as she pulled her helmet off, "Good to see you." Her eyes searched her leg as if she had no idea what was wrong with it. "You'll see Doctor Nokomoto."

"Thanks for your help." She went forward hopping and barely kept her balance as she shook the angaras hands. 

"I don't know how you and SAM communicated but I don't want to know. We all have our secrets Pathfinder." Keema didn't know. Ryder was thankful for that.

It did make her wonder what secrets she was keeping. 

When she was alone with Reyes she saw the worrying glance. "We'll catch the rest," she squeezed his hand. 

"With you at my side I have no doubt."

**Author's Note:**

> Feel free to come and say hi on [ Tumblr ](https://rpgwrites.tumblr.com/).


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